What measures after the death of two young people detained in police custody in Geneva?

Published on January 15, 2025 at 7:02 p.m. / Modified on January 15, 2025 at 7:05 p.m.

4 mins. reading

An eventful start to the year for the French-speaking prison world. This Tuesday, January 14, the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) published yet another alarming report which reflects (in particular) “consistent and credible” allegations of police violence, still deplores the endemic overcrowding of certain prisons and worried about the conditions of confinement in the post cells. The deaths of two young detainees, which occurred in January and February 2024 in the violins of the old police headquarters in Geneva, are being singled out. This double drama also occupied the Commission of Visitors of the Grand Council (CVO) which tabled the annual fruit of its reflections a week ago, an analysis which parliament has yet to adopt.

We recall that in the space of two months, two people, aged 20 and 21 (arrested respectively for illegal residence and theft), were found dead while they were locked in the violins (term which designates the cells adjoining a station where people caught in the act are mainly locked up) located on Boulevard Carl-Vogt, while waiting to see their fate decided by a duty prosecutor. These deaths – which are the subject of criminal investigations and for which the hypothesis of suicide and drug poisoning was immediately favored – have revived the debate on the precautionary measures put in place during the first particularly critical hours of an arrest. Surveillance which is the responsibility in this case of the security and hearings brigade (BSA), which reports to the Cantonal Detention Office.

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